There are many electric fish scalers known in the art employable for scaling large quantities of fish. A typical electric fish scaler comprises a large cylindrical barrel into which a large quantity of fish is placed for scaling. The cylindrical barrel has a diamond-shaped mesh wall or grate with sharp edges to scrape the sides of the fish and a means for rotating the cylindrical barrel about its axis to cause the sharp edges of the barrel's grate to scrape the sides of the fish. Since it is desirable to rinse the fish as the fish are scaled in order to keep the fish moist and to clean the skin of the fish, such prior art fish scalers typically include a rinse system for directing high powered jets of water into the barrel as the barrel rotates to rinse the scales from the barrel and to clean the fish as the fish are scaled.
A significant disadvantage of employing a large cylindrical barrel with a large grate surface area to scale fish is that the sharp edges of the grate do not always sufficiently scale the fish. The problem arises due to the insufficient force of the fish against the grate as the cylindrical barrel is rotated. The rotation rate of the barrel is limited in order to prevent the fish from clinging to the wall of the barrel and thus not sliding along the grate surface. However, a limited rotation rate reduces the force of the fish against the scaling edges of the grate. To increase the weight of fish acting against the grate of a large cylindrical barrel having a large grate surface area, the entire barrel needs to be filled with fish, thus allowing the fish to pile up on top of one another and weight each other down against the sharp edges of the grate. When less than a full quantity of fish are to be scaled, the fish tend to spread out in the barrel, rather than pile up on top of each other, thereby reducing the force of the fish against the grate surface and resulting in incomplete scaling.
Another disadvantage with such prior art fish scalers is that they tend to scale only one side of the fish. This is so because the limited rotation rate of the barrel inhibits the tumbling of the fish within the rotating cylindrical barrel. Only when the barrel is fully loaded with fish will complete tumbling of the fish be achieved. Thus, when less than a full quantity of fish is scaled, either the fish are not sufficiently scaled on all sides or the fish scaler must be run for longer periods of time in order to allow for complete scaling cf the fish.
In addition, many fish scalers are driven with a conventional chain and sprocket drive system. However, such sprocket drive systems often require constant maintenance, which undesirably adds to the operational costs of these types of machines.
Accordingly, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry for a fish scaler with a simple drive means that can achieve increased tumbling action of the fish and can better concentrate the fish within the scaling barrel to increase the scaling force of the fish against the grate.